“There’s not too much leeway for me in this league. I’m giving some serious thought to changing my last name,” Carcillo told the Tribune. “I just tried to make a play on the puck — maybe I was leaning on him. I felt like he lost his edge and we both went into the boards. … I don’t really know what else I could have done to make it less reckless.”

Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville didn’t share in Carcillo’s frustration, but agreed his reputation probably cost him. “I watched the play. You can look at the play. He’s off-balance before there is contact in my eyes. That’s how I saw it. Whether he touched him or not, he was going down,” Coach Q told ESPN Chicago. “(Carcillo’s) leash for what he can and cannot do is very short. He knows that. I don’t want to slow him down, how he plays the game. His reputation might have been part of it.”

In Carcillo’s defense, he has done a lot this year to clean up his rep and become a legitimate hockey player (rather than his previous gig as the Tasmanian Devil.) He’s been a key contributor on a line with Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa and only taken one minor penalty in seven games played. He’s one of the Blackhawks leaders at plus-5 and, perhaps most amazingly, he’s yet to drop the mitts. For a guy that’s fought 30 times over the last two years, that’s pretty impressive restraint.

I find it a bit difficult to feel sorry for him. You live by the sword – you die by the sword. He *made* the reputation he is having to live with now. Maybe he should have changed his game earlier rather than whining about changing his name now?

Just change your mentality buddy. It’s people like you who think everyone else is the problem. If you play smart, you will actually be a valuable part of a hockey team.

chobes68 - Oct 30, 2011 at 7:57 PM

He has been a valuable part this season. That play wasn’t even called a penalty, so giving 2 games is a complete joke.

danphipps01 - Oct 30, 2011 at 10:41 PM

He’s entirely correct about the reputation part, at least. He’s made his own bed, now he’s not enjoying laying in it. I’m impressed that he’s refined his game so much, but Shanahan was in no way unclear about how he was going to judge players with histories – Carcillo will have to continue playing the impressively clean game he has in the first few games this season for a fair while to convince people he’s a different guy.